Geek For Christ

[kerravonsen]

Yesterday, I was reading Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be and the following passage struck me:

Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think — and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking — that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It’s the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love.” When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER.”

I thought, I am a geek for Christ.

There's one other Christian at my place of work. When I found out he was a Christian, I didn't ask him what denomination he was, I didn't interrogate him on his doctrine, I didn't try to figure out whether he was "sound". I was simply happy to find a fellow in Christ. (No, I didn't go ALLCAPS on him, but then we were at work and it wouldn't have been appropriate.)

If someone says they're a Christian, they're a Christian. There's only one person in the universe who can declare them not to be a Christian, and since my name isn't Jesus Christ, I'm not that person!

I've seen multiple definitions of what a hipster is, so I've just ended up being more confused. But one thing that seems clear to me: a hipster is all about being cool.
And, IMNSHO, wanting to be seen as cool is a sign of immaturity.

Hipster Christians (if I may coin a phrase) have a reaction "Oh crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love." They want to keep out the riff-raff, only they call it "unsound" or "heresy" or "not True Christians". There's only one proper way to love Christ, they say, and that's my way.

Nope. You're a Christian if you say you're a Christian.

That isn't to say that there aren't certain expectations when one has made such a declaration, just as there are certain expectations when someone declares themselves to be a fan of something.
You expect them to know at least the basics of what they've declared themselves a fan of. You expect them to have read/watched/listened-to/played at least some of the canon of the thing they've declared themselves a fan of. Because how could they be a fan of it if they'd never seen it? Or never wanted to see it?

So I kind of expect that someone who calls themselves a Christian would want to read the bible. At least some of it. Because that's the canon.

Mind you, just as fans can argue what is and isn't canon, so can Christians. And have done, and probably still will do until the Second Coming. 8-) Even so, as with fans also, there's a subset of possible-canon that most people agree is canon. A common basis of discussion.

But just as there are different ways of expressing being a geek of something, so there are for Christians. To read the canon. To write meta about it. To write fanfic (midrash) about it. To filk it (only they're called hymns). To make art about it. To perform plays about it. To get together and talk about it. To memorize the canon. To explore the extra-canonical sources.

And you don't get to say that any one of these is more or less "Christian" than the others.
Though "hipster" Christians do want to do that.

You know the final irony of all this? Geeks welcome hipsters, too.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

*hugs*

You're a Christian if you say you are. What unites us is greater than what divides us. Yes, it is hurtful to be told that you don't belong, but it is hurtful because they are being rude, not because they are right. Since when did God appoint them to be the arbiters of who is and who isn't a Christian? Since NEVER, that's when!

That also means that you don't have to listen to them. One can engage them in cordial debate if they're willing to have a cordial debate, but if all they want to do is start a flamewar, then DON'T FEED THE TROLL.

And if you feel all alone, find some Christians who are more geeky than hipster. Because it doesn't matter if they believe all the same things that you do, so long as they are willing to share the Christ-squee with you. What unites us is greater than what divides us.

The Bible itself declares that not everyone has the same "faith", that not everyone has the same interpretation of Canon:

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For though there are things that are called “gods,” whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many “gods” and many “lords;” yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him. However, that knowledge isn't in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don't eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.
(1 Corinthians 8:4-8)

Does Saint Paul tell us to berate our "weaker" brother? No indeed! He tells us:

But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol's temple, won't his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died. Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore, that I don't cause my brother to stumble.
(1 Corinthians 8:9-13)

(excuse for the lonq quotes, but I thought it would be clearer to quote than to paraphrase)

The "weak" brother and the "strong" brother both interpreted Canon differently... and the important bit was not which one was "right" and which one was "wrong", but that (a) each one acted according to his conscience, and (b) that one not cause one's brother to stumble.

To bring this around to the point: you believe in Pro-Choice, in favor of women's rights, an environmentalist and support gay rights.
It is your interpretation of the Bible, your interpretation of Canon, that has led you to believe these things (and if it isn't, then maybe you should think a bit more about it, because it's always good to know why you believe what you believe).
These other people, they have interpreted Canon differently. You have more freedom than they do. Be glad of it.

[davidbrider.livejournal.com]

What unites us is greater than what divides us.

Very, very true. :-)